


What's A Little Criminal Record Between Friends?

by silverskyfullofstars



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Bolin & Korra Friendship, Detective Mako, I mean Wu is awkward too but holy shit Mako, Kiyo said to tag the following: Mako is a dumbfuck, Korra and Bolin hijinks, M/M, Mako and Wu get together, Mako is AWKWARD, Post-Canon, Wu and Team Avatar are friends now, Wuko, and sorry these tags are so messy, but not until after a couple arrests and some weirdly high bets, sorry he's still a cop, they're not wrong, upon further thought those bets might be reasonable but I'm not deleting the tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:53:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27223057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverskyfullofstars/pseuds/silverskyfullofstars
Summary: Wu gets arrested on purpose to get Mako’s attention. Mako's coworkers are in on it. Team Avatar and friends have a betting pool. Does no one in this city have anything better to do than meddle in Mako's love life?
Relationships: Bolin & Korra (Avatar), Bolin & Mako (Avatar), Bolin/Opal (Avatar), Korra/Asami Sato, Lin Beifong & Mako, Lin Beifong/Kya II, Mako & OFC, Mako & OMC, Mako & Prince Wu (Avatar), Mako/Prince Wu (Avatar)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 145





	What's A Little Criminal Record Between Friends?

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my first Wuko fic! After finishing Legend of Korra, Wuko was the ship that most jumped out at me, partially because I love Korrasami but got unreasonably attached to Mako. I dunno, something about being incredibly socially awkward and bad at relationships and kind of an older-sibling friend just spoke to me. Plus, he's aesthetically pretty and my dumb demiro-ace brain likes pretty firebenders. And I gave Mako and Wu my anxiety. Just let me have this.
> 
> Beta read by [Kiyo_Mizuki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiyo_Mizuki)  
> 

“Spirits, again?” Mako complained as he walked into the station. 

_ For Agni’s sake, he’d only just gotten to work! _

“Sorry, buddy,” Ayame said, loitering by his desk with a file. “I know this is what, the fourth time in two weeks?”

“The fifth,” Mako corrected as he sat down. “Why can’t any of you take these cases?”

“Chief says anything to do with the former Earth King is yours,” she answered. “He just gets prissy and pissy with the rest of us, but he’ll listen to you.”

“I have a case already, Ayame! I don’t have time for this!” Mako waved a file he’d just pulled out of the drawer in front of her face, just to prove his point. Ayame swatted it back onto the desktop. Mako’s forehead followed, hitting the wood with a dull _thunk_.

“Fine. Where is he?”

“Holding cell 69.” Ayame made no attempt to hide her smirk.

Mako gave her a flat look. “Really?” He sighed. “At least it’s not the drunk tank again.”

$

Wu sat in his cell, fiddling with a button on his jacket and glancing toward the main hallway every few seconds. The entrance to his cell block was guarded by a metalbender officer, a bored-looking young man with a scruffy beard. It was hard to see from Wu’s cell, but he looked like he was slouching.

Loud, angry footsteps echoed down the metal walkways, getting closer and closer.

“Is he here?” someone snapped from around the corner. _Mako_.

The bored guard snickered. “Yeah, he’s here. You wanna talk to him? I can get an interrogation ro-”

“Shut it, Benji, this isn’t funny,” Mako said shortly. “Just let me in.”

Benji followed Mako to Wu’s cell. He gestured toward the bars, asking a silent question - _should I open them?_ Mako shook his head, and Benji shuffled back to his chair at the hallway intersection.

Mako glared down at Wu. “Fifth arrest in two weeks, Your Highness,” he said. “What was it this time? Disorderly conduct? Harassment? A spirits-damned speeding ticket?”

Mako pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. “When will you stop wasting my time with this? Half of this stuff you shouldn’t even be at the station for!”

“Oh, Mako, don’t worry! I’m not wasting your time,” Wu said.

Mako stared him down with those lovely amber eyes.

“This time,” Wu amended. “I swear! Ask the guard - I’m a convicted thief now,” he said proudly.

“What the fuck,” Mako said with no inflection.

“It’s true,” Benji called from the doorway. “He stole a necklace from one of the Beifong boys.”

“No one asked you, Benji!” Mako yelled down the hall.

“You stole a necklace?” he asked, turning back to Wu.

“From Wei Beifong, yes,” Wu replied primly.

“You stole a metal necklace. From Wei Beifong. The master metalbender.”

Wu turned red. “Um…”

Mako sighed. “How much did you pay Wei, how much did you pay Bolin, and how much did you pay Benji and Ayame?” he asked Wu. “Don’t pretend I don’t know you set this up, Wu.”

Wu kicked the metal frame of the cot he was sitting on halfheartedly.

“Thirty yuans each and an IOU to go out for noodles together for Wei and Bolin, my hair gel as collateral for the magnet I borrowed from Asami, a different noodle date with Korra in return for convincing Chief Beifong to ignore all of this, and I think your coworkers are in on the office betting pool.”

Mako’s cheeks flushed visibly to complement Wu’s own face, which felt much warmer than usual.

“You paid my brother thirty yuans and _a noodle date_ \- wait, betting pool?”

“Um, see -”

“How many of my coworkers are in on this? Benji? Benji, open this spirits-damned door!”

Benji power-walked over to metalbend the cell door open, backing away from Mako as soon as he was done.

“Sorry, Mako, it was just for fun,” he tried, but Mako shut him down with a look.

“I honestly wouldn’t fucking care, Benji, if the betting pool you’ve all apparently chipped into wasn’t affecting my work. What was it even on?”

“Y’know, Detective, I think I hear the chief calling,” Benji said, jogging down the hallway. “See you later, man!”

“Benji!” Mako yelled after him.

“You know what, whatever. Come on, Wu,” Mako said, hoisting the former Earth King up by the elbow, “we’re getting to the bottom of this.”

“Um, ouch?” Wu said. “You’re hurting my arm. And my feelings.”

“Fuck your feelings,” Mako said, not very angrily at all. He shifted his grip so that Wu’s jacket sleeve wasn’t pinching him anymore.

_His hands are so warm…_

“Wu, pay attention,” Mako yelped, catching himself on the bars of an empty cell.

“What?” Wu asked distractedly.

“Your feet,” Mako said. “Watch where you’re walking, you tripped me.”

“Oh. Oopsie?”

“Sure, whatever.”

$

“CHIEF!”

Mako felt a little bad about yelling, but not bad enough not to do it. Lin looked up from her paperwork as he and Wu burst through the door.

“What’s this about a betting pool?” Mako demanded. “I know you know what’s up, you know everything that happens in this building.”

Lin looked at Mako, looked at Wu, then looked back at Mako.

“No idea, Detective. Why don’t you talk to your deskmate?”

She leaned back in her chair, doing her best to appear nonchalant.

“I already know Ayame’s in on it, and Benji, and you, and who knows how many other people in here? Wu can’t keep a secret for shit.”

Lin glared at Wu like he’d messed something up.

“What’re you looking at me for? You said this would work!” he defended.

“Me? This was Korra’s ide- oh, shit.” Lin braced herself.

“YOU?” Mako looked like he might burst into flames. “You were in on this? What the fuck could be so important that my boss is working with the Avatar behind my back and half my coworkers are betting on the outcome? And why does Wu keep getting arrested for stupid shit?”

“Technically, he hasn’t been getting arrested,” Lin cut in.

“What?”

“There’s no reason to keep a record of a dumb teenager faking petty crimes to get someone’s attention. As long as no one actually gets hurt, he could stage a murder for all I care.”

“I am not a dumb teenager!” Wu stomped his foot. “I am over twenty years old!”

Lin rolled her eyes. “I don’t actually care how old you are, just sort your shit out before the twenty-third so Bumi doesn’t win. I already lost my bet, but depending on how dense you two are, Kya could still pull it off and then we can go out for dinner on Friday.”

“How much cash is in this betting pool?” Mako asked in exasperation. “What are you even betting on?”

Wu looked like he very much did not want Lin to answer, but she went ahead anyway.

“Approximately six hundred and twenty-three yuans, give or take. All based on whether you,” Lin pointed at Mako, “can get a steady date.”

Mako tipped his head back and tried very, very hard to hold in a scream.

“You’re betting on my love life. My brother, my boss, my coworkers, and the fucking Avatar are betting on my love life. Is there _nothing_ interesting going on in this city? UGH!”

Mako stomped to the office door and let himself out, slamming it shut behind him. He stomped over to the nearest window, shoved it open, and let out a long, cathartic scream.

$

“Well,” Lin said to Wu, still standing in her office with a shocked expression on his face, “at least your secret’s still safe. Though it’s not much of a secret to anyone except him, kid.”

“No thanks to you,” Wu grumbled. “Now I have to actually talk to him. I was going to steal Asami’s car next, that would be easier than talking. And I can’t even drive!”

“Go talk to him, kid. And preferably before next Wednesday. There’s a dinner at Kwong’s Cuisine on the line.”

$

Mako left work early. None of his coworkers stopped him, though he could’ve sworn he saw more money changing hands as he passed by. He dropped by Bolin’s favorite dumpling place to grab lunch, and stomped up the stairs to his apartment as angrily as he could without bothering the neighbors.

“Fuck,” he said with enthusiasm as he flung himself down on the couch. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Why the heck were all his friends and coworkers so invested in his love life? Why did Wu keep getting fake-arrested? Six hundred-plus yuans? Why did it matter to Chief Beifong if Kya won? If he smothered himself with a couch pillow right now, who would win the pool? Why did it bother him so much that Wu was going to get noodles with other people?

Someone knocked on his door. “Um, Mako?”

_Shit_.

Mako got up from the sofa, shoving the couch pillow aside. He wrenched the door open and found Wu standing in front of him.

“Um. May I come in?”

Mako moved to the side, gesturing for Wu to enter. They sat down on opposite ends of the lumpy blue sofa, avoiding eye contact. Mako wordlessly reached for the bag of dumplings on the coffee table, pulling two pairs of chopsticks out of the bag and passing one to Wu. They ate dumplings out of the box in silence, each one waiting for the other to be brave enough to start talking.

Wu broke first.

“Well. I guess you’re probably wondering why I was getting arrested so much.”

Mako laughed nervously. “Yeah. I’m wondering a lot of things, uh, but we can start with that.”

Wu took a deep breath like he was about to plunge into an hours-long story.

“Well, it started at Varrick and Zhu Li’s wedding, when Asami was giving me these weird looks, and then after Gaoling she and Korra pulled me aside, and we talked about, um, some stuff I’m not gonna say yet, but then Bolin came by with Opal, and Opal was actually really helpful - she gives good hugs, did you know she gives good hugs? - but anyway, Bolin said that I should try getting arrested a couple times, because you’d definitely notice that, haha, not that you need to notice anything, but yeah, then we talked to Lin so I wouldn’t _actually_ get arrested, and then she pointed us to Ayame because she’s your desk partner, and then she brought in Benji and some other people, and then a couple attempts ago Wei and Wing got involved, but that’s more because they like to be involved in chaos than because they want to help me with the thing I talked to Korra and Asami about, and yeah.”

Mako blinked. “Okay, that answers who was involved and probably who started the betting, it was definitely Bolin and Korra, but… why were you getting arrested?”

Wu turned red again. “Actually, it was Bolin, Korra, and Ayame. Ayame has the logbook with the bets, she’s the most organized out of all of us. Well, Asami and Opal are organized, but Asami said she didn’t want incriminating evidence on her and Opal said she’s a pacifist so she couldn’t defend the book when you inevitably found out or Korra decided to try and cheat by changing her bet - which doesn’t make sense, Opal has definitely fought people, but whatever, um-”

“Wu, just answer the question.”

Wu blushed even more, to the point that Mako almost thought he could feel the heat radiating from his face.

“Um, well, it’s kind of funny in hindsight… itsbecauseIwastryingtogetyourattentionsoyou’ddateme.”

Mako’s jaw dropped.

_WulikesmeWugotarrestedformeWuwantstodatemedoIwantodateWuohspiritsIthinkIwanttodateWuohshitohshitohshit_

“Oh, see, I knew this would happen!” Wu cried. “I’d tell you and then you’d get mad and tell me to leave and now I’m never going to see you again!”

That snapped Mako out of his head.

“What? No! No, don’t leave, just give me a second, I don’t know what to say, oh shit, Wu, I’m sorry, just don’t go yet!”

Wu looked confused. “Are you flustered? Did I fluster you? Because I thought I was the one who always gets flustered?”

“Just… give me a second.”

Mako took a few deep breaths.

“Okay. Okay. So you’ve been getting arrested because you wanted to get my attention, like, romantically? And everyone’s been betting on when we’d get together?”

“Yeah, I guess!” Wu said, giving Mako a nervous pair of thumbs up. “Hey, you’re taking this pretty well, actually, so do you think you can tell me if I got rejected, because I think I’m about to have an anxiety attack.”

Something in Mako switched back to bodyguard mode, and he grabbed both of Wu’s hands in his.

“You’re not going to have an anxiety attack, because I’m here with you and you’re safe and I’m pretty sure I like you too.”

“Okay. Okay, you’re right. I’m not going to have an anxiety - wait, you like me too?”

“I think so?” 

Mako knew he sounded unsure, but he pushed forward.

“I mean, I haven’t wanted to date a guy before, but you take up a lot of space in my head and I always worry about you and wonder if you’re happy and if I can help, and I used to feel like that about Asami and Korra, and oh shit, that’s a crush, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, big guy, I think it is,” Wu answered. “Who knew all it took to get us here was an arrest and an anxiety attack?”

Mako laughed. “Yeah, I don’t know if I recommend that path. Couldn’t you have asked me out to dinner or something?”

“Mako, I don’t know if you’ve noticed - you must have, since _you got a job as a bodyguard_ \- but you can be a little intimidating sometimes.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.”

Mako was staring at Wu and Wu was staring at Mako and he didn’t really know how long they’d been staring, but the dumplings weren’t steaming anymore and his heart was racing and he felt more emotionally undone than he had in years - and Mako realized that it wasn’t actually a bad feeling.

He’d spent all that time bottling things up, never keeping anything in his head or heart long enough to process it. Looking back, he could see all the _almost_ moments, all the times where if he’d just let himself feel he might’ve figured himself out earlier. Spirits, why had it taken him this long?

“Mako, you okay?” Wu asked him.

“Can I kiss you?”

The words just tumbled out, but Mako realized that he didn’t want to take them back.

“I - okay. You sure you’re ready?”

“No, but I want to try. Just to see.”

They leaned towards each other, awkward and unsure, but when their lips finally met, Mako knew they’d figure whatever this was out.

$

“Hey, Chief!”

Bolin did not regret yelling, not at all. He, Korra, and Ayame burst into Lin’s office with giant grins on their faces.

“Pay up, my friends, the bet is done!” Korra announced. “Ayame, who won?”

Ayame pulled out the logbook to check.

“Well, Kya won for time frame, but Asami correctly guessed that they would need Lin’s interference, and Wei called that the necklace theft would be the last arrest, although he and Wing joined the betting late and had more information.”

“Who gets the money, then?” Korra asked.

“I think I should, after all of this.”

Mako leaned in the doorway of Lin’s office, arms crossed. Korra and Bolin looked sheepish. Lin shrugged, and Ayame looked smug.

“You didn’t even bet!” Bolin complained.

“Plus,” Korra added, “you got a boyfriend out of this. A rich boyfriend who doesn’t need six hundred and twenty-three yuans to take you out on the town.”

“You have a rich girlfriend! You don’t need it either!”

“Stop bickering,” Lin cut in. “Here’s a solution - split the six hundred evenly between Kya and Asami, and give Wei the twenty-three.”

Bolin winced. “He’s not gonna like that.”

“He bet later than everyone else,” Ayame shrugged. “Them’s the rules.”

“Yes!” Korra crowed. “Asami wins!”

“She’s not even here,” Bolin pointed out.

“Yeah, but we share a bank account now.”

“No fair, that’s cheating!”

“So what? We both know Kya’s using her half to take Lin out to a fancy dinner, so technically Lin cheated too.”

Bolin pouted. “Why can’t all our girlfriends win money?”

“Don’t worry, Bolin, the next bet’s on when they get married. You and Opal have to win at some point.”

She threw her arm around Bolin’s shoulder, and the two of them headed out of the police station, discussing odds as they went.

From the alcove around the corner from Lin’s office, Mako watched them leave - he’d slipped out when they were discussing how to divide the winnings.

“So, rich boyfriend,” he said, wrapping his arms around Wu and kissing him on the cheek, “you gonna take me out on the town?”

“Thought you’d never ask.”

**Author's Note:**

> You can tell I wrote this in late September based on Lin's calculations for when Kya needs to win. Sorry for posting over a month late, but I'm not changing it.
> 
> Fun fact: Kiyo helped me name the original characters in this story, because originally I had them written down as Character A and Character B. From there, we got Ayame, Mako's fellow firebender, detective, and desk buddy, and Benji, a metalbender who's one of the holding cell block guards. I know Benji isn't really an Asian name, but Kiyo assures me it can be written and pronounced in Japanese, and we know enough people named Ben in real life that it's funny.
> 
> -
> 
> Un-fun fact: if you're in the United States, you're eligible to vote, and you haven't voted already, GO VOTE! This shit's important, my friends. Let's hope we can make some positive change for the country tomorrow night and make up some of the progress we've lost over the last four years.


End file.
